The LDWA accounts for the Financial Year 2018 are available here:

https://www.ldwa.org.uk/website/downloads/agm/AGM_Accounts_17-18.pdf

OK. I know, you're not going to download them, let alone wade your way all through. Nah! Just do what you always do, turn up at the AGM and approve them on the nod. After all, we trust our committee don't we? They're going to look after our finances just fine. Aren't they? Anyway, truth be told, I don't really get all that accountancy stuff and I'm not really interested in how the LDWA spends its money...it's all about the walking as far as I'm concerned.

AND THAT's EXACTLY WHY YOU NEED DAVE's SIMPLE VERSION OF THE 2018 LDWA ACCOUNTS

TaDah!

The problem with accountancy stuff is that accountants attach special meanings to everyday terms and phrases whuich can cause confusion. So we're going to cut through all that by defining just for the purpose of this exercise, a few terms of our own:

NET WORTH: The notional value of the LDWA's remaining assets after it has met all its obligations and debts, ie what it is worth at the end of each year.

TOTAL INCOME:The sum of all the transactions in a financial year (FY) that make the LDWA richer ie that increase its NET WORTH eg. Subscriptions, Donations.

TOTAL EXPENDITURE: The sum of all the transactions in a financial year that make the LDWA poorer ie that decrease its NET WORTH eg. Telephone Bills, Bank Charges.

If TOTAL INCOME exceeds TOTAL EXPENDITURE then we are operating with a SURPLUS and the NET WORTH will increase by the amount of the SURPLUS from one year end to the next.

Conversely, if TOTAL EXPENDITURE exceeds TOTAL INCOME then we are operating with a DEFICIT and the NET WORTH will decrease by the amount of the DEFICIT from one year end to the next.

If the LDWA continues to operate with a DEFICIT then eventually its NET WORTH will decline to zero, at which point our creditors will become very jittery.

That's it: SIMPLES!

Turning now to the LDWA accounts for FY2018, the 'Net Current Assets' are essentially a statement of the Association's NET WORTH, in other words, what it owns. At the end of FY 2017 that stood at £155,844 and at the end of the last FY 2018 it was down to £133,993. This means that during FY 2018, the LDWA's NET WORTH declined by £21,851 (the DEFICIT), that is to say the LDWA owns 14% less than it did last year.

This DEFICIT should be compared with the SURPLUS of £10,830 that was generated during 2017. What happened? How did we go from a surplus of c.£11k to a deficit of c.£22k? Well it wasn't a drastic fall in TOTAL INCOME; that remained fairly static in FY2018 at £137,447 compared with £133,254 in FY2017, in fact a modest gain of 3%.

No, the reason is a huge jump in expenditure. We can see how huge by either adding together all the shown 'Costs', or by simply adding the DEFICIT to the TOTAL INCOME. Either way, we come out with a TOTAL EXPENDITURE in FY 2018 of £159,298 compared with £122,424 in FY2017, an increase of £36,874 or 30%. This increase is equivalent to 19% of our NET WORTH whilst the TOTAL EXPENDITURE exceeds our NET WORTH by 19%. This is not yet catastrophic but it is a WARNING! We cannot run DEFICITS like this for very long.

By far the biggest 'contributor' to the TOTAL EXPENDITURE are the 'Administrative Expenses' which are listed in the accounts, up from £67,389 in FY2017 to £105,321 in FY2018 an increase of £37,932 or 56%. A few examples are 'Honoraria' up 50% from £4,000 to £6,000; 'Committee Costs' up 59% (!) from £9,390 to £14,955, 'Website Costs' up 40% from £19,452 to £27,328.

These may be seen as hefty increases BUT they are not the main cause of our £22k deficit. That honour goes to 'Legal Fees' (Hurrah! Wouldn't you have just known that?) And what do the annual accounts have to say about that? Er...well nothing at all, actually!

To find out why the LDWA spent £24,132 of our cash on 'Legal Fees', you need to dig out the annual report. Here it is:

https://www.ldwa.org.uk/news/news_story.php?menu=Y&news_id=549 where you will find:

“.....legal fees mainly in respect of updating the LDWA’s Articles of Association of £24,132 made up the majority. “

THAT'S RIGHT....legal fees of more than £24k to update our Articles of Association. Our Executive Committee spent a sum equivalent to 18% of the LDWA's NET WORTH just to update its Articles of Association.

BUT as always, there's some good news.............and then, there's some bad news.

First the GOOD News.
If the LDWA does go 'tits up' as seems inevitable if we keep running deficits of this magnitude then since we are now, as our new Articles of Association proclaim:

“Company Limited by Guarantee and not having a Share Capital”

as members, our respective liabilities are limited to just £1 each.(Hurrah!)

5. Liability of Members
5.1 The liability of the Members is limited.
5.2 Every Member of the Association undertakes to contribute such amount as may be
required (not exceeding £1 (one pound)) to the assets of the Association in the event
of its being wound up while he, she or it is a Member or within one year after he, she
or it ceases to be a Member...

So perhaps Messrs. Bates, Wells and Braithwaite really have earned their salt with these new Articles after all. In fact, all I need to confirm this is to see the documentation relating to their contract; the invitations to tender, the various competitive responses and the deciding factors, you know; the usual stuff of a transparent, open and dare I say, 'inclusive' organisation?

Oh No! Here comes the BAD News, enshrined in those very Articles of Association so expensively acquired and unanimously adopted by the 2018 AGM:

46.2 Except as provided by law or authorised by the Committee or an Ordinary Resolution
of the Association, no person is entitled to inspect any of the Association’s accounting
or other records or documents merely by virtue of being a Member.

Ah well, what did you expect?